The Loop

Jeopardy GOAT Day 2: Jeopardy James is BACK and a tough college football category

January 09, 2020

Ken Jennings may have once won 74 games of Jeopardy in a row, but he will not make it a clean sweep in the Jeopardy GOAT tournament. In fact, he and Brad Rutter might be in trouble because Jeopardy James is BACK! Sorry, we forgot to alert you to SPOILERS!

After a close call in the first night of this trivia extravaganza, everybody's favorite gambler was back to his dominant self on Wednesday night as he evened the score with Jennings at one match apiece. Actually, things were tighter than the final score (James: $82,414, Ken: $57,400) made it seem, as James pulled away in the Final Jeopardy of Game 2 of night two. Apparently, Ken has as much faith in his recollection of "19th Century Leaders" as he does in his knowledge of H&R Block (Only true Jeopardy fans will get that one). Here was Ken's reaction:

Yep.

And then there was poor Brad, who didn't even advance to final Jeopardy after having a negative total in Game 2. It's hard to believe that a guy who had never lost to a human in this game before (he lost to IBM's Watson computer once) and had defeated Jennings in numerous tournaments could be this outclassed, but through two days he has. Even James daggered him on Twitter:

And:

Ouch.

Also of note on Day 2 was a particularly difficult college football category, which For The Win covered. Apparently, there's an award named after Gerald Ford? And that was only the $200 clue!

And the fun banter between the three, in particular between James and Ken continued. James even coached Ken on how to mimic pushing his chips in when he bets it all on a Daily Double. Good times.

And the good times will keep rolling on Thursday night at 8 ET. Reminder: Each one-hour episode is two games that combine to equal one match. And the first to three matches wins so we are guaranteed this going at least two more nights, and possibly more if Brad ever gets his act together. Until next time, happy buzzering.